[Published: Monday October 22 2018]
 Indians protest French jets deal
NEW DELHI 22 Oct (ANA) - A multi-billion dollar deal for 36 Rafale French fighter jets has got the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition in India at loggerheads.
Over 100 left-affiliated organisations will hold week-long protests across the country beginning Monday against what they allege is a "corrupt" deal favouring one of India's richest industrialists.
Demonstrations and sit-ins, under the banner of 'Jan Ekta Jan Adhikar Andolan' (People's Unity and Rights Movement), are being organised by left-backed outfits at state and district-levels to "raise awareness" about the "scam" from October 22-28.
As India gears up for what is expected to be a tightly-contested general election in a few months, the protests are seeking to highlight the alleged "wrongdoings" of the ruling right-wing government.
In 2016, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed an $8.7 billion deal for 36 Rafale fighter planes from France, the country’s first major acquisition of combat planes in two decades.
But it has since faced criticism from Indian opposition parties who allege severe wrongdoing in one of the country's biggest defence deals.
Opposition parties like the Congress and the Left say India overpaid for the planes and are also questioning why a private firm with no experience in the defence sector, tycoon Anil Ambani's Reliance Defence Ltd, was awarded the contract instead of the state-run manufacturer, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.
Former French President Francois Hollande, who approved the deal when he was in office, created a stir last month when he revealed that the Narendra Modi government in New Delhi forced Dassault Aviation to choose Ambani for the deal.
"We had no choice. We took the partner that was given to us," Hollande was quoted as saying in an explosive interview to French investigative news service, Mediapart.(ANA)
FA/ANA/22 October 2018--------
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